With almost all of the sacred symbols appearing by the end of Episode 17, there has been lots of talk about how powerful the Jujak was, how weak Hyun Go’s power is, etc. It has been put across in the drama about how they actually work but people might have not understand it fully.

In the time of Hwanwoong, remember the sacred symbols only came about after he summoned them? Yes, that means only under extreme circumstances would the sacred symbols come into effect. When the Black Jujak went amok, Hwanwoong summoned Baek Ho, Woon Sa and Woo Sa to try and stop it.

Now in the present timeline, its the same logic. The sacred symbols are only awakened but this time only where Damdeok who is the reincarnation of Hwanwoong experiences certain feelings arising from certain situations.

Hyeon Mu (Black Turtle) - Dark fury
This sacred symbol was seemingly awakened when Hyun Go was within range of Damdeok at Dae Ja Castle where he experienced fury after learning of Kiha murdering his father and betrayed his trust in her. It awakened and saved Damdeok from being killed by the Hwanchun horde and Ho Gae. He is the reincarnation of Woo Sa.

Cheong Ryong (Blue Dragon) - Cold mercy
This sacred symbol was actually being used by Cheoreo since it was planted into his heart by his father when he was young. When Damdeok went near him, his heart would hurt. Later Damdeok took out the sacred symbol from his heart and his hideous look started peeling away. But the sacred symbol hasn’t awakened yet. It was only until when Damdeok and Dae Jang Ryo got into a fight at Gooknae Castle in which Damdeok was at the losing end, did the sacred symbol awakened. Cheoreo attached it to his spear and sent Dae Jang Ryo flying. Cheoreo is the reincarnation of Woon Sa.

Baekho (White Tiger) - Pure courage
The last we heard of this was Ho Gae finally managing to get information from Ba Son about his brother’s location which was somewhere in Koran area. Ba Son and his brother were part of the family that had safeguarded the White Tiger symbol for generations and were from the Heuk Su Malgal Blacksmith village. We know from the start that Jumochi is somewhat related to Ba Son and is the owner of White Tiger sacred symbol. So it remains to be seen how it would pan out for him to get ownership and awaken the symbol. He is already a helluva of a good warrior without it.

Jujak (Phoenix) - Passion
There’s still confusion over who is the reincarnation of the Jujak. By now, it is clearly distinguished over who is actually the one. Kiha is the reincarnation of Kajin, the fire goddess and this is clearly noted in episode 12 where she said that it has become easier for her to handle fire. In episode 17, we see Kiha using her power without needing to rely on Heart of Jujak which was left unguarded at Hwanchun base and later retrieved by Damdeok. Hence Kiha manipulation of fire now is purely her innate talent as Fire Goddess and not drawing power from Heart of Jujak.

Kajin was the fire goddess and could control fire with ease. Into this present timeline, Kiha has the heart of Jujak from young and was being taught how to draw the fire power from it by Dae Jang Ryo from the symbol. But because of circumstances she didn’t fully grasp it until she became “evil” from episode 12. So basically, Kiha doesn’t need the heart of Jujak and isn’t the owner because she is the reincarnation of Kajin.

So we can ascertain that Sujini is definitely the reincarnation of Sae Oh and the rightful owner of the heart of Jujak. We can see premonitions of Sujini recalling her past where ever a fire is burning nearby her. We see the heart of Jujak burning brightly in episode 17 when Damdeok and Sujini was near it at Hwachun base but they didn’t take special notice of it. So it remains to be seen how it would be awakened and whether Sujini would take the same route as Sae Oh and become the Dark Jujak which we hope not. The jujak is unusual from the other three sacred symbols in that it can manifest itself into the Dark Jujak probably because it deals with passion, affairs of the heart.

So in a way, these symbols act as a form of key to the gates of heaven. And they are not powerful things that people can just take and then utilise to their whims and fancy. Without Damdeok, the four sacred symbols are just useless objects. So what Dae Jang Ryo has been aiming to do from episode 1 was to collect all four sacred symbols and the blood of Damdeok so that he can awake the symbols to gain access to heaven.

So presently, only Hyeon Mu (Black Turtle) and Cheong Ryong (Blue Dragon) have awakened. Jujak hasn’t awakened yet because Sujini hasn’t claimed ownership yet. Kiha hasn’t awaken the Jujak symbol yet, she is just using it to learn how to control fire.

Only seven episodes to go. We still have the awakening of Baekho and Jujak symbol to look forward to plus Kiha vs Sujini, Ho Gae’s eventual demise and how Damdeok goes about his great war campaigns to reclaim the lost Jyushin lands and reunite its people.

Oh thanks to incube for the reminder. I forgot about the son of Kiha and Damdeok. Right now, only Kiha knows of the baby while the other important characters like Damdeok don’t. We all know that it was Sae Oh who bore Hwanwoong a baby in their previous life, not Kajin. So exactly how will this pan out is rather interesting.